There's more out there than there ever was in the past, and it seems bizarre that two P45 boards with Gigabit, PCIe 2.0, etc., can be at $60 and $500.
The $60 end is bottom-feeders like First and Elite Group and other faces of PC Chips: stay away, unless you enjoy high failure rates and fake components. The $500 end is for people wanting to make enterprise server-level gear: not necessary for home use when you could make a home quality PC and two hot backups for less money than you'd spend for components of equal breeding and/or branding.
Do you have Computer Dude picked out? Usually he would have better data on your market than we would, and will be able to better respond to items like CPU + Board combos, which aren't necessarily cheaper up front, but have the advantage of being configured at the vendor, preventing a certain amount of finger-pointing in the event of a warranty claim or support issue during assembly.
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The $60 end is bottom-feeders like First and Elite Group and other faces of PC Chips: stay away, unless you enjoy high failure rates and fake components. The $500 end is for people wanting to make enterprise server-level gear: not necessary for home use when you could make a home quality PC and two hot backups for less money than you'd spend for components of equal breeding and/or branding.
Do you have Computer Dude picked out? Usually he would have better data on your market than we would, and will be able to better respond to items like CPU + Board combos, which aren't necessarily cheaper up front, but have the advantage of being configured at the vendor, preventing a certain amount of finger-pointing in the event of a warranty claim or support issue during assembly.